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Pokémon TCG Pocket on a shared table
Pocket already plays itself: the app shuffles, generates your energy, enforces every rule and finds you an opponent. So why would you put a Pocket deck on a table in a browser? Because the app will only let you play the cards you have pulled, and a deck idea is cheapest to test before the pack points are spent. Untap.in has the Pocket card pool, reads a Limitless list, and gives you a two-seat table where you play the game the way the app would — minus the part where it stops you.
Play-test a deck nowin your browser · nothing to install
What a table is for, when the app already exists
| The Pocket app | A table on Untap.in | |
|---|---|---|
| Cards you can play | The ones you own | Any of 2,322 in the database |
| Rules | Enforced | Your table decides; points kept on a counter |
| Energy | Generated for you from your deck's types | You track it — a counter, or a token card |
| Opponent | Ranked, random, or a friend by private-match password | A friend by link, or the public lobby |
| Record | Ranked matches count; private ones do not | Nothing counts; it is a play-test |
| Where | Phone | Phone, tablet or desktop browser |
Nobody is going to replace the app with a browser tab. The table is for the hour before you craft: you have a list from a tournament, you own twelve of the twenty cards, and you want to know whether it is worth the pack points. On the table you import the list, deal five, and play it against a friend's deck — or against your own current deck, from the other seat — and then decide. Private matches in the app need both players to own the cards; the table needs neither of you to.
Setting up a Pocket game
- Import the list. Decks → Import, and paste a pocket.untapped.gg or pokemontcgpocket.app deck URL — a tournament decklist or a deck-builder link — or type the twenty cards. Each line lands on the exact printing.
- Open a table. New Game → Pokémon TCG Pocket, two seats. Send the link, or let the lobby fill the other seat.
- Play Pocket's rules by hand. Draw five. No draw on the first player's first turn. Three to the bench. One energy a turn from your Energy Zone, which the table does not generate, so keep it as a counter on your seat or a token card — a pod decides which. Knock-outs are points on the counter: one for a Pokémon, two for an ex. Three points wins.
- Try the other line. Rewind takes the table back to before any action, so the turn where you attached to the wrong Pokémon is not a lost game.
What the table does not do
It does not enforce anything. There is no Energy Zone drawing a random type each turn; you decide what you would have drawn, or roll a die for it. Weakness is a number you add. The app's animations, its ranked ladder and its trades are the app's. If what you want is to play Pocket, play Pocket. If what you want is to find out whether a list works before you own it, or to play a friend on a laptop with cards neither of you has pulled, that is what this is.
The paper game is here as well
Untap.in also has the full Pokémon TCG — every printing from Base Set to the current sets — with the same importer reading Limitless and pokemoncard.io, and the same table. If Pocket got you into the card game and you want to see what sixty cards and six prizes feel like, it is the next deck type down the list, and the formats the official client will not run are the reason a lot of people use it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I play Pokémon TCG Pocket with a friend online outside the app?
Yes, on a shared table: import both decks into Untap.in, open a two-seat Pocket game and send the link. You play the rules yourselves; the table moves the cards and keeps the points.
Can I play-test a Pocket deck with cards I do not own?
Yes. The table has 2,322 Pocket cards in its database and does not care what is in your collection. That is the main reason to use it.
Does Untap.in handle the Energy Zone?
No. You track energy yourself with a counter or a token; the table does not generate it. Everything else — hand, bench, discard, points — has a place.
Can I import a Limitless Pocket deck?
Yes. Paste a pocket.untapped.gg or pokemontcgpocket.app deck link into Decks → Import and every card lands on its printing.
Does it run on a phone?
Yes, in the phone browser, with the table laid out for a phone held upright — and on a desktop, which the app does not.
Is this the same as the Pokémon TCG on Untap.in?
No. Pocket is its own deck type with its own twenty-card decks and card pool. The full Pokémon TCG is a separate deck type on the same account.
Bring a list
Import a deck, goldfish a few hands, then open a table and send your pod the link. It runs in the browser, and the first play-test takes about as long to set up as reading this did.
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